Just catching your breath on a week packed with NBA news and speculation? Well, prepare to lose it again, because things are just getting started, and this weekend will be a doozy. Buckle up, because we’re Throwin’ Elbows here:

Rockets ready

The NBA Draft is fewer than 24 hours old, but already this week, gravity was pulling attention away from the young guys getting new hats on Thursday and onto the big-time contracts that can be negotiated starting on Monday, when the league’s free-agency period kicks into gear.

MORE: Draft board | First-round trades | All-time No. 1 draft picksIt all begins with Lakers big man Dwight Howard, who has been part of an exhausting drama involving his next contract for the better part of two years. Howard’s people have put out word that the whole thing should be wrapped up by July 10—that’s only 12 more days, which is not so daunting considering that it’s been about 570 days since word first got out that Howard wanted out of Orlando.

Already, we’ve seen the Lakers post billboards around Los Angeles with a photo of Howard and the word, “STAY.” That’s nice and all, but Howard will get a strong pitch from Rockets general manager Daryl Morey next week, and for those accustomed to handicapping the Howard horserace, it sure looks like Houston has pulled ahead of the Lakers, Mavericks and Hawks for Howard’s services.

Morey said late on Thursday night that the Rockets—who are looking to give away forward Thomas Robinson and the $3.5 million on his contract to create cap space for Howard, but did not do so during the draft—weighed a number of options.

“We were limited this year in what we could do because of our plans in free agency,” Morey said. “We need to focus on cap room, things like that. We had a million trade scenarios. We looked at them and this was the best for us today.”

Morey didn’t address the Robinson issue head-on, but said, “We’re 100 percent confident that we’ll be set up well.”

It’s hard to fathom the expertise that Morey has shown in all this. Go back a year, and many were wondering whether Morey had gone mad, having accumulated three first-round picks (Jeremy Lamb, Royce White, Terrence Jones) and preparing to gut the roster while giving out hefty deals to Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik.

But he wound up collecting enough assets while maintaining flexibility to capitalize on the fact that the Thunder were not able to re-sign James Harden. Morey leapt at the opportunity to grab Harden, knowing that having one star in place would make it easier to land a second and build a legitimate contender.

Whether that second phase can come to fruition will be known in less than two weeks.

Desperate times

One reality coming out of Thursday night, in the wake of the blockbuster trade pulled off by Brooklyn and Boston, which sent Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry to the Nets for Gerald Wallace, role players and three future first-round picks is this: Danny Ainge was determined not to go into the weekend with Pierce and Garnett on the roster.

The Celtics had until Sunday to make a decision on Pierce’s contract, which will pay him $15 million next year, but could have been bought out for $5 million. Ainge could have let the deadline pass and still trade Pierce after July 1, but that was too risky—the Celtics might have been stuck without a taker for Pierce at $15 million.

The Nets were not the only team that the Celtics were in talks with, a source said. Dallas and Houston were both contacted, too, but it was Brooklyn that showed immediate interest in acquiring Garnett and were willing to take on Pierce, too, if the Celtics agreed to absorb the last three years of Wallace’s deal.

North of the border

Anthony Bennett made a bit of history by becoming the first Canadian player to go No. 1 in the NBA draft. It could be a double-shot for the Maple Leaf next year, with another Canadian, Andrew Wiggins, the odds-on favorite to be the top pick.

It’s a pretty remarkable time for basketball north of the border—Tristan Thompson was the No. 4 overall pick by Cleveland two years ago, and Kelly Olynyk was also a first-rounder in this year’s draft. It’s early, but this generation of Canadians has the feel of the great Argentina teams of the past 13 years. It is fitting, too, that the national team is being headed up the best Canadian NBA player, Steve Nash.

Bennett said he is in touch regularly with Nash, and that they last spoke in January, before he had decided to enter the draft. He does plan to be part of the national team’s practices this summer—which will take place in August—but he won’t be able to participate because he is still recovering from shoulder surgery.

But with the Rio Olympics creeping up in 2016, Bennett expects Canada to be a factor. “We have a lot of solid players, a lot of post players,” Bennett said. “Guards, too, like Myck (Kabongo) and Cory (Joseph). We just got to put the right team together. I feel like anybody they pick will be a great pick.”